June 12, 2012, R.I.P. Habeas Corpus
I try to be sanguine about these things (our pretensions of not being a dictatorship ended around eight years ago with the S. Ct.'s ducking of Padilla, as I saw it)... but Candace pronounces Habeas Corpus officially dead now (as the Supreme Court ducks all seven D.C. Circuit cases for which review was sought), and I can't disagree. (When she posted that yesterday, Candace didn't even know the pretty much foregone result in her own client's case (scroll down to this case: 06/12/2012 Civil Action No. 2010-1020, ABDAL RAZAK ALI V. BARACK H. OBAMA, ET AL. Doc No. 1500 (memorandum order), by Judge Richard J. Leon), denying all remaining motions and sending the case to the dreaded D.C. Circuit, where Habeas pretty much went to die... Candace certainly knows it now.)
The rubes, of course, to the extent that they are even aware that their purported Constitution only exists for "the 1%," or more accurately, "the 1% OF the 1%" (as if they needed, as they are already immune from the law, let alone above it... see "Corzine, Jon;" see also "Blankfein, Lloyd", "Paulson, Hank", and "Sachs, Goldman"... er, reverse that last one...), would probably be just de-lighted to hear that a bunch of A-rabz is gettin' treated not too different from our own [swarthy] prisoners. GTMO is just a microcosm for the kind of nation we have become: abusive, overbearing, hypocritical, but fundamentally, scared shitless, even of a bunch of pathetic young men that our own government has largely determined to have been picked up erroneously in the first instance. It explains drones and "kill lists"... not exactly how a proud and confident nation with proud and confident leaders behaves, now is it?
Habeas.. you had a good run. Rest in Peace.
June 2, 2012, Simple solutions for a rational system
Since we don't have a rational system-- merely one designed to serve its most powerful members at the expense of everyone else, though "everyone else" will merrily go along with what the elites want (just so long as a few buttons get pushed along the way, and, of course, the WonderBread and NASCAR/Jersey Shore Circuses keep flowing)-- none of these devilishly simple and comprehensive solutions will likely be implemented any time soon on these shores.
But the great Charles Hugh Smith is such a visionary, I feel compelled to shout out his stuff... particularly his current trilogy: Income Tax Solution: Apply Social Security Taxes to the Super-Wealthy ; Income Disparity Solution: Return the Minimum Wage to 1969 Levels; and Big Idea Solution: Radically Lower the Cost Basis for the Entire Economy. Essentially, Smith recognizes that, at least in the realm of economic sustainability anyway, we often did things better decades ago-- a few simple "retro" tweaks [adjusting minimum wage for inflation; restoring progressive income taxes; eliminating taxpayer-paid economic "friction", etc.] that the elites will go apoplectic about (it will undermine their privileges) can go a great way toward restoring "fairness." And who doesn't like fairness? Oh yes... the people who have achieved wealth and power unfairly, of course.
Which is why I said "Simple solutions for a rational system..." Still. .. if things get so crappy here that even the low quality obesity-generating-rations we dispense now to the peasants get reduced to the point where we end up having our own Tahrir Squares (not how you bet, btw, and the Occupy! movement just isn't there yet)... then maybe our own elites will (shades of the 1930's) be sufficiently scared for their own hides to start thinking about things beyond feathering their own nests. It has happened before...
May 30, 2012, It's the Kleptocracy, Stupid
Wendy Kaminer raises an interesting question: might Barack Obama's shameless fawning on Wall Street oligarchs (via expansion of the all-important national security state,manifested "on the ground" with the surveillance of, spying on, labeling of as "terrorists", pepper-spraying, etc. upon (mostly) youths who dare to question the social order even to the extent of shaming) not merely be evil and stupid and wrong in every sense of the word-- might it actually be bad politics? In a razor-thin electoral margin situation, Obama's deliberate targeting of members of his own base... just might not be the greatest of ideas in terms of getting Democrats (such as himself) elected or reelected. Not that it matters, of course. Wall Street wins, regardless of whether Kang or Kodos Obama or Romney wins.
Of course, as Albert Hunt observes, what had previously been extreme executive overreaching under George W. OBama has become "the new normal" under Barack H. OBush.
Just as "extraordinary rendition" and bombing civilian targets in push-button wars and, for that matter, the use of Guantanamo as a dumping ground for unwanted furriners were all fully in place in the Clinton Administration, it seems there's an "arc" to the total national security state that only an insane visionary with no chance of being reelected would dare even question. The premises of the national-security/financial-sector alliance that runs our polity (indeed, our entire national narrative) have not been questioned since (alleged pretensions of "hope and change" notwithstanding).
Here's the thing: the Obama Administration continues to hold dozens of men it acknowledges should be released in very expensive detention at Guantanamo Bay, while virtually no one has so much as been investigated (let alone indicted or convicted) for the undeniable criminality that caused the financial meltdown of '08 and the ensuing depression really bad recession we have been "enjoying" since. OK:those two events are absolutely related. The military industrial complex exists as a source to soak up much of the money that Wall Street magically creates (via its private-bank-owned-Federal-Reserve franchise to do so) which goes into "risk free" government debt (rather than say, getting lent to the rubes or their business enterprises)... and the fact that its now being deployed domestically to clamp down on those irritants who even try to shame the oligarchs... is merely a useful bonus. The broader point is, of course, to maintain a stranglehold on "resources" located on and under other people's countries, and of course, to spend as much American taxpayer money as possible in the course of doing so, lather, rinse, recycle, repeat. Everyone (in the 1%) wins.
Alrightie then. Alleged progressives who wish to root root root for the home team are welcome to go back to pretending that it actually matters whether Kang or Kodos Obama or Romney wins. The rest of us can, hopefully, get a better understanding and focus on the point of the system as we now find it: "It's the Kleptocracy, Stupid." [What to do about it? Brother Dmitry has a pretty good idea...]
May 21, 2012, Pretend democracy, meet pretend constitution
I don't know what to make of the Grey Lady's op- ed lamenting an unsuccessful House bill to dial back part of last year's National Defense Authorization Act providing for... wait for it... due process of law (by civilian law enforcement) for Muslims dark-skinned people terrrrrrrrrorism suspects.
The Grey Lady's op-ed rightly lauds a decision from Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest striking down certain portions of the loathsome NDAA. Good for Judge Forrest. I agree, Still... my problem with the whole tenor of these stories is that, now, ten years after September 11th and the demonstration project known as Guantanamo is that these stories imply a background semblance of "normalcy" of which there's simply no evidence.
The thing with the NDAA is that it changed nothing... it simply "codified" what a series of corrupt court decisions, executive decisions, press collaboration and public complicity in our current status quo of summary executions of citizens, arbitrary detention of "the other," penal servitude and/or supervision of more people than any nation in the history of the world, permanent total war with the entire world, and... you get the picture.
Maybe it's because it's 2012 and we're getting that Apocalypse; maybe it's because my own personal health issues are seemingly unrelenting; maybe it's because my college classmate, the alleged Constitutional law scholar, has done his damnedest to eviscerate any Constitutional protections traditionally thought to be "rights" of his countrymen, presumably in exchange for campaign contributions from the financial sector, which doesn't want its authority questioned (even if its sole hold on power is bribes paid to politicians).
Whatever it is... I'm finding it harder and harder to play along-- play along with the idea that "the election" means anything, or that "the economy" is due for "a recovery," or that anything in our "culture" is worth, well, anything as we seem to have a societal-wide suicide pact working.
Don't know. After a while, one just looks for anything to grab on to, and you realize that what would have made our ancestors happy hundreds of years ago-- family, friends, long-handed-down-stories and cherished avocations ("gardening" comes to mind)-- things, interestingly, that don't involve money, compound interest, technology, energy waste or environmental degradation-- still make us happy. Have to grab onto those, and not pay attention to the "macro," which is... problematic. Oh... and not so... "real"... unlike say, the things that make you happy.
Just saying...
May 5, 2012, Feliz Cinco de Mayo
Alrightie then. First, a huge shout-out to our friend the Unseen Editor, who is under the weather. We know what that's like.
As the Presidential election campaign season gets going (the "outcome" is irrelevant; Big Finance has bought and paid for both major party candidates; new Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson isn't going to be elected, nor is anyone who will not keep the wars going and the financial criminals un-indicted), one supposes things might turn on "the economy."
And so, we'll turn to this supposedly "wonky" (but actually incoherent) piece by Ezra Klein on unemployment, which can't seem to explain exactly why it is "workforce participation" seems to be declining (if it was not declining, headline unemployment would be well over 10%-- closer to the probable 22% or more it really is if we measured it the way we once did), but seems to imply that "baby boomers are retiring early."
Compare and contrast this Grey Lady piece noting just how many new college grads choose voluntary slavery unpaid internships in an effort to get in the door at employers. (The piece notes the jobless rate for recent college grads is 9.4%; keep in mind that obtaining work as a Starbucks barista or Walmart cashier makes you "employed.")
If baby boomers were really retiring in a non-anecdotal way, then there would be openings created at the other end of the pipe, ideally filled by much lower cost new grads. The reality is that the United States has successfully de-industrialized: what is left is a declining workforce, earning declining wages, just as prices of things are going to the moon, and an ever smaller number of "haves"... seem to have everything, as profits (especially to the finance sector) and CEO pay and finance bonuses have never been higher, as its quite possible we've by-passed neo-Victorianism and gone right into neo-feudalism. "Recovery"... yeah, right.
Hey, at least our prison industry is booming. I mean, have we not workhouses and prisons?
April 28, 2012, Old High school
It's hard to figure out even where to begin with this (apparent) observation that "Barack Obama is too cool for American voters," based, perhaps, on a recent appearance of the President on the Jimmy Fallon show.
Well, back when he and I actually were in school (albeit two or three years after high school), the young Barack that I encountered in our junior year at Columbia [in some political theory class or something, IIRC] was pretty damned cool... actually, he was probably cooler than he is now, truth be told.
But... does this matter? We're way beyond mere "style vs. substance." There, is of course, no "substance," because there is no "democracy," only a pretty bad impersonation of one. The same goes with "freedom," "checks and balances," and, other than in appearance, our "republican form of government." "Equality under law" has always been more aspirational than real, but it sure ain't real now. At this point, only paid shills of the system itself even attempt to deny that the "two parties" are both beholden to (and wholly owned by) the financial sector.
The fact is, whether it's totalitarianism expanding the Bush/Cheney approach to national security, or totalitarianism extending the Bush tax cuts or totalitarianism seeing to it that Jon Corzine and the financial sector are above (indeed, beyond) the law, or just about anything else I can think of, it's really hard for Republicans to sincerely challenge the Obama Administration on the substance of its programs (which, to be fair, were largely also the Bush programs, the Clinton programs, the first Bush programs and the Reagan programs, with only Jimmy "Eat Your Damned Vegetables" Carter as an exception to pure governance-by-the-financial-sector-and-defense-contractors that we have "enjoyed" along with flat or declining real incomes for the overwhelming majority of Americans, made up by skyrocketing debt levels) since 1981 or so.
In the imminent "election" between "the two parties," neither party can really challenge the other on policy... the "war on women" is far more bipartisan than anyone will care to admit, the "war on the poor" continues unabated, the "war on everyone else in the universe" drives everything else in American policy, and the über rich consolidate whatever power and real resources that they don't already control, and those unhappy with their lot are welcome to pound sand, while the police state also consolidates... the logical extension of the repeal of the Bill of Rights by the Supreme Court in Padilla has given us the NDAA and other abominations, seen on the ground in the form of heavy-handed reactions to the largely peaceful Occupy! movement, or indeed, to any actual expression of dissent from Our Perfect American System [TM].
Anyway, it seems we are "enjoying" an "election" coming down to "coolness" amidst the otherwise nightmarish economic, environmental, social, moral, legal and other morasses we are now "enjoying"... I suppose this is all consistent with being a nation (any nation) where Kim Kardashian gets a dominant place in the national discourse.
How to deal with it all? I think I have the right idea by trying not even to think about it (hence the light blogging)... but old habits die hard. First, of course, the traditional bottom-of-the-hole advice is "stop digging"-- and so I'd also suggest that we please stop pretending there is any meaningful substantive difference between "the two parties" (if there is, someone did something wrong.) That said-- feel free to vote based on "coolness;" at least style may be a genuine difference (can't seem to figure out any others.)
Still and all... even though none of this matters... I do agree that Mitt Romney is incredibly uncool. Well... I guess it's back to the old Etch-a-sketch.
April 8, 2012, Happy Easter
It's a nice day; let the President play golf, says I (after we lay out our preconditions to talks with Iran presumably to assure that there won't be any.)
Sadly, long-time CBS news staple Mike Wallace passed way, though at 93, he certainly had a nice run.
Of course, given the reports of the potential for the spent-fuel rods at Fukushima , Japan to discharge perhaps 85 times the radiation released from Chernobyl, and likely take out much of Earth's life... he may be among the luckier ones. Also, the fact that their home might soon be uninhabitable should give some solace to the people of Catalina Island, California, for whom gasoline prices have passed $7/gallon.
That sort of "destruction of civilization" thing kind of takes the thunder away from everything else, really. We can pay less attention to the fact that the United States Government is training an Iranian group that the U.S. State Dept. classifies as terrorists (and naturally has ties to the killing of Americans). [Hey, I hear the Knicks took one from the Bulls today...]
Happy Easter, everyone (and a Zissen Pesach to my lantsmen.)
April 6, 2012, You know it's an election year when...
It's time to crank up the GTMO Show Trial Machine [TM], in this case to reopen the long-lost military commission cases against KSM and four of his friends [for the record, besides Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the listed defendants include: Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi] down at Guantanamo Bay.
Well, y'all know my feelings on the subject, and you're welcome to check out those of former commissions prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld and former commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis, as expressed in my linked-to interviews with them. Let me highlight some of Col. Davis's comments:
The Talking Dog: You have stated that the commissions were neither "military" nor "justice." Do you believe that the Obama Administration's later tweaks with the commissions process, applying to those commissions going forward, and to the extent contained in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (recently signed into law remedy) this -- in a non-superficial way?Morris Davis: [T]he answer is "no": I don't think the "reformed" military commission process is significantly different from the military commissions as I left them in October 2007.
Candidate Obama was adamant about the gross injustice of the military commissions, until, of course, he flip-flopped and embraced military commissions. He needed something face-saving, so enough "changes" were made to give him some political cover to claim things were different.
The Military Commissions Act of 2009 was just a politically motivated veneer slapped onto the old process to give the administration an excuse for embracing what it had condemned. If you look beneath the veneer you see that the most significant change to what had been the last “reformed” incarnation of the commissions is a slight change to the hearsay rule. Under the old rules, hearsay was presumed reliable and the burden was on the opponent of a hearsay statement -- most often the accused -- to show by a preponderance of evidence that the statement was unreliable. The "big change" made in 2009 was that the burden shifted to the proponent of hearsay evidence to show, by a preponderance of evidence, that the hearsay evidence is reliable. This change is, basically, a burden shift from the accused to the prosecution, in most instances, of about 1/100th of one percent. A preponderance of evidence is a 50.001 percent versus 49.999 percent standard. If swapping the hearsay burdens around represents a significant change, then there has been a significant change. I don't think it’s anything more than a little coat of whitewash to give President Obama some political cover.
After a while, given the simultaneous convergence of environmental catastrophe, peak oil, financial implosion/depression, broader issues of overpopulation and possible planetary overshoot (read "mass starvation"), and so much other bad sh*t already on their way for us this 2012, coupled with the fact that we are well on the way to domestic dictatorship as it is, the seemingly minor injustices of Guantanamo... just don't seem quite as central as all that anymore. I should note that, for those who still, against all evidence, actually think "elections matter"... we can note that Mitt Romney once suggested that the problem with Guantanamo was that it wasn't big enough (by half).
And obviously, the alleged perps of 9-11 seem a perfect coda for a citizenry always willing to sacrifice the rights of "the other," never quite figuring out that unless everyone gets benefit of law, then no one really does... heck, even a kangaroo court seems better than the summary execution that al-Awlaki (and his teenage kid) got, right?
The heady days of Shiny New President Obama signing executive orders to close the place and other good stuff once hinted at in his inaugural address on that cold January day (in my case, I saw my college classmate-- we both graduated a year before 1984-- take the oath of office on a large screen set up near Wall Street, just a few feet from where George Washington took the first Presidential oath of office)... are all long behind us.
We have since learned that perfect's the enemy of the good and all... and, of course, that freedom's slavery, war's peace, ignorance's strength, etc.
And I guess that's it. It's an election year again.
April 1, 2012, April First Greetings
Obviously, since this is my April 1st edition, everything I write here is some kind of April Fool's joke. That's how it's been pretty much through the run of this blog. But I'm not going to go give you, say, a blockbuster April Fool's Day interview, like I have in the past with, say, Rumsfeld, Cheney or Palin. Just, you know... interviewed out. So this year... I'm going to "keep it real," and just give you April Fool's Day... straight up.
So, for example, the [hilarious!] idea that it would be House Republicans trying to curb the terms of the NDAA statute to, say, limit the power of the executive to arbitrarily detain whomever the President wishes, say, citizens if nothing else, has got to be some kind of a joke. I suppose they're the ones who will stand up to that mean old Mr. Holder, who couldn't possibly be wrong in suggesting that it is perfectly legal for the President to execute anyone he wants, Bill of Rights be damned. I mean, these are the same House Republicans who liken America's immigration detention facilities to campus holidays. Those House Republicans, man. Kind of makes me all warm and fuzzy-- like I want to go out and build my own Museum of Creationism, or something.
No, that can be real.
Neither can, say, the Obama Administration be doing its utmost to make the Bush Administration look like a model of transparency when compared to it.
Or that "the Walmart of Weed" will be opening in Washington, D.C. Or of course, the government needn't trouble itself with monitoring the patrons of such a cornucopia of cannibis... it can just spy on you through your major appliances.
Nope. I'd better stop this here. Sorry this has gotten to be rather tasteless on my part. So... please forgive me. This has been... April First Greetings.
And don't get me started on "Health Care Reform."
March 23, 2012, Expressway to perdition
Just as the Constitution-shredding NDAA, rushed through Congress and signed just hours before midnight on New Year's Eve formally codified the de jure dismemberment of the Bill of Rights (essentially using unilaterally declared "military emergency" as a justification to kill or en-dungeon anyone, anywhere at the President's sole whim), we now get an executive order (the "National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order") that, in any circumstance in the mere "interest of national defense" authorizes the President to enslave anyone and commandeer all property, including food and water.
I'm more sanguine about all of this than others because, well, I've been paying attention for the last ten years. None of this is anything new. Thing is, we go back almost exactly ten years to the Curious Case of Jose Padilla, and the fact that, despite nominal rules like Ex Parte Milligan supposedly preventing the Government's arbitrary imprisonment of anyone and suspending of habeas corpus while courts are open, somehow "exceptions" were found for the "extraordinary" situation we find ourselves in (to wit, Big Finance has captured everything and doesn't want any questions asked), and citizens (not merely swarthy Muz-lum furriners) could be thrown in the brig and tortured, due-process free. Say what you will... it's now all perfectly "legal." So while the ante is being upped... it's only being upped quite marginally, really.
The delicious ironies abound, of course. The nominal Goldman Sachs's God's instrument on Earth is none other than President Barack Obama, alleged "Constitutional Law Scholar" and, of course, my own college classmate, who signed the latest Soviet edict shortly before heading to The Dubliner Irish pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, said pub amusingly being my own favorite watering hole (and site of my "leaving Washington party") at the time of my erstwhile service in the U.S. Justice Dept. back when St. Ron of Santa Barbara was the President.
Deep sigh. Our friends at the Occupy! movement should take some pride in this: the Central Powers (the respective management and lobbyists of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Bank of America, HSBC, Wells Fargo, et als.) feel some pressure, and they especially feel the need to "legalize" what would otherwise be a really bad public relations move of having to have their agents and subsidiaries in the cabinet level agencies formally seize everything, so they needed a "legal" fig-leaf (a large fig-leaf to be sure, but any plant-part in a storm!).
And so... the Empire Strikes Back: sometimes you just have to break some legs eggs to make a credit default swap.
March 17, 2012, Don't mess with the Man
Happy St. Patrick's Day. Alrightie then.
Those who don matador outfits and take out red capes to go bull-fighting against sacred bovines would do well to recognize the risky nature of the business. When doing so under the seemingly protective cloak of "big media" legitimacy, sacred-cow-fighters must realize the possibility that Money will fight back-- and let's face it: Money fights dirty.
Remember that Money liked George W. Bush, a lot. Bush repaid them with tax cuts, 99% of which pretty much went to the 1%, the deficit went to the moon, and the rest takes us to where we are now. Anyway...
I suspect that fewer Americans than you would think can even remember who Dan Rather is, let alone how his daring to take on a sacred cow (in this case, the fundamentally true story of George W. Bush's use of political influence to evade service in the Vietnam War by joining the Texas Air National Guard, and then, largely evading service even in that), resulted in a kerfuffle over collateral details in the story that were never proven untrue either. This in turn resulted in Rather's abruptly stepping down from his CBS news anchor position just before the '04 election (and to Money, we say "your horse naturally won").
Similarly, we recall a situation where a rather perverse view of "process" also seemed to benefit Bush, via another media rollover-- to wit, the fundamental truth of the actual story was sound (unquestionably true, actually)-- but the "personal views" of the journalist-- caused a walk-back. In that case, it was a somewhat unusual incident involving our friend Andy Worthington, whereby a front-page story run in the New York Times concerned an Afghan national who, without doubt, died in U.S. custody at Guantanamo had to be "clarified" because of Andy's "personal views" (i.e., his "controversial" views that GTMO is an ongoing abomination... and of course, he has a well-documented book and web-site on the subject.)
The latest event involving taking on one of Money's sacred cows comes from what had been, until perhaps this weekend, one of the few bright spots on National Pandering Radio (NPR), the "This American Life" program, which, in one fell swoop, threw all of its credibility away in a facile attempt to preserve its credibility. A bit more on the story here, which, in brief, involved monologue-ist [and fellow Brooklynite] Mike Daisey doing one of his signature bits, "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," which dared OBSERVE that the most profitable and valuable corporation in the history of the world, Apple Computer (which has essentially blessed us with cool toys and little else)... relies on Chinese factories that employ highly inhumane and exploitative working conditions. This proposition, of course, as are the other propositions set forth above, is "true"... in the way the war-mongering work of The New York Times reporter Judith Miller... is not.
And yet "fundamental truth" isn't the point-- what matters (that, is, when it needs to matter) is "the weaselly defense lawyer" truth-- the ability to invoke "reasonable doubt" (or unreasonable doubt) not by challenging the story, but some collateral details in the story. In Daisey's case, the issue was not whether or not Foxconn workers under contract to American corporations (including and especially Apple) were as young as 12 or 13, worked long hours and did horribly repetitive tasks and occasionally suffered chemical poisonings (this is admitted fact)... Daisey's "mistakes" involved purporting to insert personal observation of these well-documented facts, based on essentially a drive by visit to Chinese factories, where he supposedly met workers telling him of these conditions. Except he kind of didn't (or in one case, based it on observing a worker who looked 13 to him, rather than asking the worker.) Alright-- so Mike is exaggerating: he should have been clearer that he was "imagining" the workers telling him this [as a matter of artistic license, one supposes] rather than pretending (even if rhetorically) that he was "a journalist". But... honestly... so what? Why isn't it the story's fundamental accuracy what matters? Heh.
The difference, boys and girls, is not some "meta-discussion" of the dichotomy between journalism and art (Mike Daisey's own response). It's much more troubling (and hint: "it's not about process.") It's really a simple lesson observed by media critic Eric Boehlert during my interview with him:
There are unspoken rules out there: do a story critical of Bush, if things get tough and blow up, you may lose your job, and your show may be canceled.
Or, quite frankly, do any story critical of any of Money's Most Sacred Cows. And so it is crystal clear what happened here: a story ran on a major Establishment media arm, National Pandering Radio, which is utterly dependent on corporate money to exist, and Money didn't like a story and simply threatened to pull the plug (whether, as I suspect, quite overtly, or perhaps with some degree of subtlety... but the result is the same... I don't really care that the cover story will be some "discovery" by "another journalist"... "plllllllease.")... Journalistic integrity mon derriere.
Anyway, "voila!"... Americans can go, now all cleansed and guiltless, back to their Apple toys, knowing that the story of their manufacture by ostensible slave labor in Dickensian working conditions has been duly "discredited" via some hand-wringing and "journalistic integrity." After all, Apple is one of the most widely held companies in the portfolios of the powerful, not to mention, a company that is sitting on more cash than the United States Treasury.
In short, Mike Daisey, "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature. YOU WILL ATONE."
As for the rest of us... well, those who doubted that NPR was part and parcel of the same Establishment press as, say, Fox News (only in a more sober tone)... have less reason to doubt it. The Business of America is BIG Business. And there is no OTHER business of America. In fact, if it's NOT about dollars, it's UN-AMERICAN. Honestly, Mike, Apple MAKES MONEY AND COOL STUFF. Who cares how they do it?
This has been... "Don't mess with the Man." We mean it, man.
March 15, 2012, Beware the ides of March
Here's the thing: I'm having a hard time determining which is the parody-- this, a resignation statement from a former senior manager for an economy-destroying empire... or this, a resignation statement from a former senior manager for an economy-destroying empire.
Honestly-- honor and integrity from someone who spent twelve years at Goldman Sachs? Please, Greg. At least Lord Vader presents the genuine possibility of burnout... that sentiment, at least, has a shred of credibility to it.
March 14, 2012, All politix is local
Oh, let's all hail Rick (the P is silent) Santorum for his primary wins in Alabama and Mississippi, proving I suppose, that really hateful and reactionary rhetoric sincerely expressed is still appreciated in some circles of hell parts of the US of A.
Hateful and reactionary policy, however, whether directed at reporters or whistle-blowers of any kind, or of course, the usual suspects (those poor bastards at GTMO) ... well, those ill-feelings are wonderfully bi-partisan.
I realize I'm a broken record. No one is listening-- or wants to. The country's attentions will now turn to "March Madness," as even what passes for "the political process" is attracting no one's interest. And the Government/Finance stranglehold will just continue to consolidate-- an addled, overworked (when they have jobs), stressed-out, and let's face it, not very bright American public simply refuses to "connect the dots"-- that the threat isn't mythical terrorists-- the threat is a now fully militarized internal police-state apparatus, that now awaits only its moment for domestic deployment: the "legal authority"-- complete with statutory fiat and courts that won't stop it (because of course, it was first applied to Muz-lems, Latino gang-bangers and dirty hippies, and not, of course, to God-fearing overweight White exurbanites)-- it's all there, on the shelf, just waiting for its moment.
And the thing is-- even when it is unleashed broadly on the entire "99%"-- I'm still not convinced that most Americans would be particularly upset (assuming their crappy food, meds and electronic toys were still readily available.)
Alrightie then.
March 9, 2012, "Trust us"
Haven't had too much chance to blog... but how 'bout that Eric Holder and the new "Liquidate enemies of the state? Trust us."
Honestly-- it's the logical next step after being able to throw anyone we want into a dungeon without any semblance of legal or constitutional rights (and btw, this is "citizens or anyone else")... why NOT target assassinations?
Greenwald rightly decries Democrats for their ominous partisan silence on this-- even as Republicans have the intellectual honesty to laud Obama for embracing policies they like.
Yes... that's where we are. Another third world dictatorship, only with better drones (and nuclear weapons!) Oh... our "leaders" won't abuse any of it... "Trust us."
February 29, 2012, Time marches on
And so we come to a once-quadrennial event, February 29th. I spent the early part of it convalescing in a big city emergency room, following up on an ailment that has plagued me much of this month; to my immense relief (and that of TD-Mom, who stayed with me, Mrs. TD and the Pup, and the rest of TD Famiglia... and hopefully, but not necessarily, TD World), I'm told that things are improving, and neither a multi-day hospital stay (as happened a fortnight or so ago) nor surgery is required. At least for now. And so, as I approach my 50th in about 8 months time... I guess this is the sort of thing I should get used to-- periodic strange medical maladies. But I digress.
Or do I? Because as sick as I feel (and although I'm pleased to be recovering, I do have some pain), I still seem to be healthier than our macro, be it issues environmental, economic, war and peace, civil liberties or you name it. As I quipped to a hospital technician (who suggested that Romney won Michigan...) I counter-suggested that perhaps in a few days, Santorum will have actually won it by 32 votes... but in any event, the whole thing is merely An Entertainment. It certainly matters not ultimately which Vassal-of-Goldman-Sachs occupies the Presidency, or which of "the two parties" controls the Congressional branch of our Strumpetocracy (a brilliant term I recently heard somewhere). So... I'm just not going to play that. As I suggest to you all... go about your own business. Don't get worked up about thinking there is any difference at all (and I mean AT ALL) about "who wins elections" in this country [or much of the world].
Just take care of yourself... and maybe you won't have to spend the evening in the ER... just saying.
And so... there we are.
